It is disconcerting, no less embarrassing, that
the world’s most populous black nation is yet
again stuck with the proverbial devil and the
deep blue sea in the build-up to its
presidential election in 2015.
It is a huge shame that even the intellectuals
have helplessly resigned to the virtue-
insolvent characters thrown up by the two
heavy weight political parties, as though
arguing for a credible third option is
sacrilegious. For what it’s worth, even
respected human right activists, social
(media) critics, and highly intelligent youths
are fast sounding like a broken record,
passionately defending the indefensible.
My position is clear: Goodluck Jonathan and
Muhammadu Buhari do not deserve my vote
or yours in the coming election. Hard as
family and friends try to sell either to me as
the messiah ordained to take us to Eldorado, I
cannot but wonder why it is not crystal clear
to them that both are bad markets. Hard as
noisemaking party faithful try to disparage the
opposition’s candidate, I cannot but ponder
on why playing the ostrich has shamelessly
become a pastime to them.
I would not bother you with Goodluck
Jonathan’s lackadaisical attitude to clamping
down corruption or his romance with
characters that should be serving time in a
maximum prison or perhaps should by now
have faced the firing squad. Neither would I
bother you with his many acts of indiscretion
and poor leadership aptitude and attitude.
On the other hand, to attempt to chronicle
Muhammadu Buhari’s gross human rights
abuse as military head and his arrogant
dismissal of any wrongdoing as an aspiring
leader in a democratic regime would amount
to disservice to the intellectual acumen of
Professor Wole Soyinka, who has expertly
expounded on same in articles in the public
domain. I presume, to Buhari’s cronies and
supporters, dancing awilo on the graves of
Lawal Ojuolape, Bernard Ogedengbe, and
Bartholomew Owoh who were executed in
cold blood by Messiah Buhari is an act worthy
of thunderous applause. To quote Soyinka,
“Since leaving office, he (Buhari) has declared
in the most categorical terms that he had no
regrets over this murder and would do so
again.” Sai Buhari!
For me, we don’t have to go that far to
uncover the unsuitability of both candidates
for the highly exalted office of the president.
That we have been unfortunate to have one of
them for six years is no reason why we must
perpetuate folly. And yes, that the other
singlehandedly amassed an intimidating
number of votes in the election gone by is no
reason why we must not tell his gullible
supporters that their hero’s credibility is zero.
Section 14 (2) (a) of the 1999 Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria states that
“sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria
from whom government through this
Constitution derives all its powers and
authority,” while Paragraph (b) is equivocal in
stating that “the security and welfare of the
people shall be the primary purpose of
government.” It was not by chance, I believe,
that security is placed before welfare in the
order of what should preoccupy a responsible
government’s concern; for a government that
cannot guarantee the security of its people
can only provide a surreal welfare for them.
Indeed, a government that cannot provide
security for his people has no business
staying in power since the primary purpose
why the people relinquished part of their
liberty to the government in a social contract
in the first place would have been defeated.
Under the nose of Goodluck Jonathan, Grand
Commander of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, an estimated 5,000 civilians have been
killed in terrorist attacks occurring mainly in
northeast, north central and central states of
Nigeria. Besides, more than 500 women and
children have been reportedly kidnapped,
among whom are the 276 Chibok girls that are
yet to be rescued from their abductors. This is
beside the many other criminal activities that
have escalated in other parts of the country
since his assumption of office.
It is convenient to say terrorism is intractable
and cannot be easily subdued. It is very
convenient to say Jonathan’s political
detractors who threatened to make Nigeria
ungovernable if he returned to power have
been frustrating all efforts to curb the
menace. The truth, however, is that Goodluck
Jonathan has so far paid lip service to
stamping out terrorism and insurgency in
Nigeria. Who doesn’t know that except a tree
is cut from the root, all efforts at cutting off
its branches are but superficial? If Nigeria’s
president in a statement could categorically
validate his knowledge of the brains behind
the wanton destruction of lives and property,
who he affirmed as being part of his
government, what further evidence do we
need to disclose the insincerity of a leader? A
president that would hesitate to expose and
prosecute the sponsors of terrorism, [but
rather send under-armed soldiers to take out
Boko Haram foot soldiers] in order to protect
his political interest should without batting an
eyelid be sent into political oblivion by the
electorates.
For Muhammad Buhari’s bootlickers, the fact
that he is not president does not impose any
obligation on him to suggest strategies to
halt the Boko Haram nuisance. Assuming,
without conceding, that this is the case, what
has been his stance as an elder statesman
and former military head on the carnage and
bloodletting that has almost swallowed the
nation?
Muhammadu Buhari could only stand by and
watch as his devotees unleashed terror on
innocent Nigerians after his loss at the 2011
presidential poll. I am not aware that he ever
commiserated with the families of the
deceased or condemned in unmistaken terms
the barbaric actions of his supporters. Rather,
he had the audacity to go ahead on May 14,
2012, to say to his bloodthirsty supporters
that “if what happened in 2011 should again
happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog
and the baboon would all be soaked in
blood!”
Muhammadu Buhari, to my knowledge, never
concurred to pronouncing Boko Haram a
terrorist group but would rather see the
devilish sect as “our people” who are being
oppressed by the military boys. I carefully
perused his acceptance speech as the All
Progressives Congress (APC) presidential
candidate and all I see is one sinister speech
full of guile and hypocrisy. While suggesting
that the PDP has led Nigeria into “the current
state of insecurity, poverty, sectarian divide
and hopelessness,” the prevailing insecurity
challenge and what he hopes to do about it
was conspicuously missing in his five/six-
point pledges. I wonder how he intends to
implement a national infrastructure master
plan, improve agricultural yield, and even
stamp out corruption if he is overwhelmed by
the same mass of terror that Boko Haram
visited Goodluck’s government with. Does
Buhari know where the switch-off button of
insurgency in Nigeria is? How could one boast
of astronomical development if insecurity
remains unattended to? It is either Buhari is
self-delusional or irredeemably impious.
He is the latter if he knew all the while the
solution to the crisis but decided to keep
mum. Why did Buhari have to wait till he got
the ticket of his party before condemning
“unreservedly and with every strength in me
the recent terrorist attacks in Kano and Jos”?
Such statements, rather than show him as
concerned, smirk of hypocrisy. He possibly
did not mean it when he said in his
acceptance speech that “We will be a
compassionate government,” for it is visible to
the blind that he doesn’t know the colour of
compassion.
I am left to wonder what the worth of a life is
to the duo. Do they really care how many
Nigerians are hacked down in the most
bizarre manner by the demonic sect as long
as they secure political power? Are these so-
called leaders human at all? Can they possibly
give up an ambition, though alluring and
appealing, to save even a single life? Can they
possibly rescue Nigerians from obliteration
even if the opposing party would as much get
the credit?
I submit that it is time we stopped massaging
the idiocy of the political class. If the heavy
weight political parties have decided to set
charlatans on the loose, must we credulously
embrace them for what is worth? Has
sovereignty stopped being the preserve of the
people? Can the best man for the job in an
obscure party not be popularized by all and
sundry who care about their future? I will not
be party to settling for the lesser of two evils,
for when you settle for the lesser of two evils,
evil still invariably wins.
Source: http://www.thecable.ng/immoral-vote-jonathan-buhari-2015

...it is also diabolical and wicked

Well said op. But practicality dictates that we settle for the lesser of
2 evils by voting for GEJ. Doing that is the best way to force the
Only viable opposition party we have in APC to think very well before
insulting our collective intelligence again in 2019 and present us with
a candidate with more substance and less cheap tears riding on selfish
ambition.